PICTURES FROM OUR LAST DAY GOING TO lAKE HAVASU CITY

 We are in Lake Havasu City, AZ now, arriving yesterday after a 4 day driving trip.  The trip went well and we arrive safely.  The first 3 days there are not a lot of things to take pictures of.  The fourth day has some interesting things to snap.  All of these pictures were taken from the car with it moving at around 75 mph.  I wasn't driving, my dear wife Pat was at the wheel and did great.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is the first mountain we see east of Flagstaff, AZ.  It had snow this year, but there have been years in the past when it was bare.  It is in the area where all the skiing is done for the Flagstaff ski area.

Another shot of the mountain from about 5 miles closer.

Just a big hump of a hill with flat land around it.

This is west of Flagstaff and we are starting the down hill run.

The big hump hill from closer up.

AZ didn't agree.

Another down hill shot.  Some of the runs were pretty steep.

Going back up again.  This happens several times between Flagstaff and when you get all the down to the low lands

This was along down hill run and steep.

And up again.

This was just coming into Kingman, AZ.  It is at the bottom of the hills in the distance.

Some of you will remember Andy Divine as the sidekick of Roy Rogers. Andy was actually born in Flagstaff, but grew up in Kingman and considered that his home town.  He was in many movies and TV shows.  Kingman named the main street of the town in his honor.

The sign we were looking for all day.

The off ramp to go to Lake Havasu is on the right by the truck in the picture.

This is the "boondockers" area just before you get to Lake Havasu.  Boon dockers are those that don't want to be in an RV camp and just find a place out in the country to park.  This camp gets to be very large when all of them get here.

The very first glimpse of the lake.

 

A closer shop of the main body of the lake. and we are in Lake Havasu City.

 

Patrick

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  Hope everyone has a fun and safe day with lots to eat.  Today we are having turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry sauce and peach cobbler for dessert.  Hope your meal is as great.

Patrick and Pat

WINTER, AGAIN!

 We got around 5 inches of snow yesterday during the evening and night.  The ground was totally bare from the very nice weather we had last week.  This may not last long as it is suppose to warm up a little in the coming week.  I am sure there will be more soon enough  It does clean everything up and make it look pretty.

Our backyard white again.

Bird feeders all covered up. 

No More grilling this year.

The trees are all snowed up also.

Patrick

STUMP REMOVAL AND FIRST SNOW

 In the previous blog I had pictures of some trees we had removed.  Yesterday the guy came to remove the stumps and get the spots ready for lawn again.  The pictures will show a couple steps in the process.  And, as a bonus, there is a picture of the first snow this winter.  It is far to early, but has to happen I guess.

This is what the stumps looked like after the trees were taken down.  They were surrounded by a rubber edging and the area was filled with River rock.  The flags in this picture were to mark a sprinkler head and the water supply line to it.

This is how they looked after the edging and rock had been removed.

Here is the second one before rock removal

Second one after rock removal.

This is how it looks after the stump has been ground away and black dirt has been added.  It would be black if the snow hadn't come this morning.  At least it is nice and smooth and will be easy to mow over next summer.

This is the back yard with the first snow of the season.

Patrick

TREE REMOVALS

 We had a tree service in yesterday to remove some trees and to trim up a couple.  They got it all done and it has changed the openness for viewing the river.  Three of the trees taken down were dying and the fourth was always dropping limbs.  We had two trees in the front yard trimmed up and it really makes it brighter in the front yard.  Took a lot of pictures and have trimmed it down to these.

 This is one of the trees in the front yard that needed trimming.

This is how it look after being trimmed.

This is the other tree that needed trimming.

The after look.

This is an old Cedar tree right outside the kitchen window that was dying.

Down it comes.

They stuck the whole tree in one piece into the chipper.

There is the end of the Cedar tree.

This was the Willow tree that was so messy and not really of any value.

This was just as the tree was coming down, but the tree service truck blocked the view.

The also stuck the Willow tree in the chipper in one whole piece.

The end of the Willow.

The new view with the Willow gone.

The two Pine trees in the middle of the picture were the other two trees removed.  They were dying.

Preparing the first one.  He climbed 3/4 the way up the tree and tied the rope.

Rope tight and ready to be cut.

Making the last cut.  I didn't get the tree falling, but it came down quickly.

This is the top half of the trunk of the first Pine tree.  The machine ate it right up.

End of the log.  They kept the bottom half to make into firewood.

Making the cuts on the second Pine tree.

It also had a rope tied up in the top and came down easily where they wanted it.

Pine trees gone and a new view to the river.

Patrick

DUCKS AND FLOWERS

Despite the rain and wind storms and the very hot weather, our outside flowers have weathered well and are looking good for half way through the summer.  Hope they make the second half as well.  We also have many ducks in the area.  We had three sitting on the dock this evening almost like they were "social distancing".  There are between 25 and 30 others that come around a lot and we discourage them from staying because of all the mess they make.  They are mostly the young ones from this years hatch.  They will make some hunters very happy this fall.  Enjoy the pictures.

These are the "social distancing" ducks.  I think it is a mother and two daughters.

Pretty purple flowers.

Some sorta red ones.

These sort of look white, but are really yellow.

Some pink ones.

This is a Day Lily that has the pretty purple flowers.  All the other ones have yellow flowers.

This is in a pot at our front door.  There were two other flowers in the pot, but they didn't make it.

This is a patch of Hostas  in front of the house.  Lots of flowers on them this year.

Patrick